[title]Family quotes[/title] [description]Welcome to our family quotes section! Here you'll find some of the funniest (and wisest) quotes on the subject of family life![/description]
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UC    824847 Tue, 19 Sep 06 11:05 PM

The word 'English' functions like "Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco 2001", not like 'Barolo'. It is unique, and therefore incapable of being 'good' or 'bad'.
To clarify:
You can write a bad composition in the English language, but that does not make the English 'bad'. More specific terms need to be applied to the composition in any case:
Wordy
Unfocused
Trite,
etc.
These are not terms that apply to the 'English' you write, but to your English composition. English is merely the language you write in, and it is incapale of being 'good' or 'bad', just like "Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco 2001".
UC
Stephen Calder    824859 Tue, 19 Sep 06 11:35 PM

"The word 'English' functions like "Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco 2001", not like 'Barolo'. It is unique, and therefore incapable of ... language you write in, and it is incapale of being 'good' or 'bad', just like "Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco 2001"."

And the reason every English speaker writes and speaks of "good English" is?

I know! You're right and they're all wrong.
"The rules of good English"
heading in the chapter on grammar in The Oxford Companion to the English Language.

Stephen
Lennox Head, Australia
John Briggs  , 3 yr 68 days ago

"Oh, Fer Chrisakes. 'Good English' gets 2,820,000 google hits. Why don't you bugger off and tell all those people they're wrong? DC"

""Good English" implies that there are various kinds of English ("good English" and "bad English"), rather than various speakers of ... the speaker, not the language itself. "Broken English" is not "bad English", but English spoken in a halting, non-native way."

It is also the title track of an album (1979) by Marianne Faithfull.
John Briggs
Fran  , 3 yr 68 days ago

"I've found that if when using the google interface, you ... "Django Cat") and selecting the link you'll get that nick."

"Ah ha, right, yes, that sounds about right. Is it still Tuesday in Aus?"

It was when I posted last.
TOF
Oleg Lego     824881 Wed, 20 Sep 06 05:30 AM

The CDB entity posted thusly:
"Are you on drugs? A proper name represents a UNIQUE thing. Unique things cannot be modiffied by adjectives of quality. It's patently obvious."

"How about the good Tullia and the bad Tullia? Clue: one of them didn't drive the family car over her daddy."

I can never remember; was it the pretty Tullia that drove the car over her daddy?
Einde O'Callaghan  , 3 yr 68 days ago

UC schrieb:
"Oh, Fer Chrisakes. 'Good English' gets 2,820,000 google hits. Why don't you bugger off and tell all those people they're wrong? DC"

"They are wrong. The numbers mean nothing."

So your real name is Humpty Dumpty.
Einde O'Callaghan
Charles Lindsey    641427 Wed, 20 Sep 06 12:38 PM

""Good English" implies that there are various kinds of English ("good English" and "bad English"),"

and indeed there are - they are known as "dialects", which deviate in various ways from "received English" (which is itself a somewhat ill-defined term). The most outlandish dialect is "pidgin English"
"... rather than various speakers of English whose skills vary. There is but one language named "English", just as there is but one "Michael Sellaroli". There is no "bad Michael Sellaroli" and no "good Michael Sellaroli". 'English', like "Michael Sellaroli" is a proper name."

But there is (AFAIAW) only one entity known by the proper name "Michael Sellaroli" (and whether either of the adjectives "good" and "bad" could reasonably be applied to him I wouldn't know). But there are numerous entitities (dialects) described by the proper name (if it really is a proper name) "English", and hence it is reasonable to discuss whether one of them is "better" or "worse" than another.

Charles H. Lindsey At Home, doing my own thing Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Fax: +44 161 436 6133 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl Email: (Email Removed) Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K. PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5
the Omrud    641431 Wed, 20 Sep 06 03:18 PM

Charles Lindsey (Email Removed) had it:

Goodness gracious. Charles Lindsey. You still with us then?

David (one-time student of yours, long ago and far away in a different galaxy and with a more realistic name)
==
UC    824902 Wed, 20 Sep 06 03:25 PM

"The word 'English' functions like "Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco 2001", ... 'good' or 'bad', just like "Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco 2001"."

"And the reason every English speaker writes and speaks of "good English" is? I know! You're right and they're all wrong."

If they would understand what they are saying, they would recognize that I am right.
""The rules of good English" heading in the chapter on grammar in The Oxford Companion to the English Language."

Oxford? OXFORD? They're morons. This should read "The rules of good English Composition".
UC
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